Four Ways Interview Videos Can Help Authors Get Media Coverage

Writing and getting a book published is a huge accomplishment. Congratulations!

Building sales for your book is your next – enormous – challenge. You need publicity. You want editors and producers to want to interview you.

But before reporters and producers waste time on an interviewing an author they want to know she’ll sound smart. They can find that out quickly if your site and media kit include a two to three-minute video interview.

Reporters Love Videos

Leslie Mann, who writes feature stories for publications including the Chicago Tribune and its Tronc-owned sister papers, says she will often go to a trade association to find an informed source. “When a journalist gets broadcast clips for sources, woo-hoo, she would figure she’s hit the jackpot! Otherwise, sure, the source may know her stuff and have creds, but may be tongue-tied in front of a camera.”

Editors and producers want to know you can sound smart before they waste time interviewing you. They need to know that you’ll be articulate and interesting, rather than tongue-tied, umming and ahhing, overly self-promotional or, worse yet, boring. Short video interviews can quickly demonstrate that you’re a good subject.

Four Ways Short Videos Can Help You Get Interviews

Your interview videos should be under five minutes, and two to three minutes is better. Here’s how video can help:

Demonstrate to reporters and producers that you will be a good interview subject or guest.

Hugely expand your online footprint so you’re easier to find.

Improve SEO and drive traffic to your site because Google search favors short informational videos. YouTube is the only social media network that is also a search engine.

Help your Amazon Author and Goodreads pages stand out to editors and readers.

The video interview advantage

That’s why your website, blog and social streams should include a short video interview that showcases how engaging you can be as a guest. In fact, nothing will get you more attention (besides a segment on Ellen!) than a well-produced video interview.

Important: Your video shouldn’t be a sales pitch. Instead, it should demonstrate your expertise in your subject. Don’t worry: journalists will mention that you’re an author and name your book. If you’re lucky enough to get on a talk show, the host is even likely to hold up your book for the audience.

Engaging and informative, short video interviews also make journalists more likely to find your content when they search for sources. That’s because Google search favors short, informational content like video interviews. As Deepasha Kakkar notes in Search Engine Watch, videos “convey emotions, actions and can explain concepts and idea very easily. No wonder videos have 41% higher click-through rate than plain text, and high conversion rates and ROI on top of that.”

Videos also:

Increases the time people spend on your content, giving your message more time to be heard. Fifty-five percent of people spend less than 15 seconds on a web page. But 55 percent of people watch online video every day and 65 percent of people watch at least 3/4 of a video.

Increases conversions by as much as 80%, which in turn can increase book sales.

Increases visitors’ trust in your services, making potential clients more likely to reach out to you and more likely to link to your site or re-post your video to their social networks

Give you a platform for answering readers’ questions.

Here are two recent videos I’ve produced for authors. Let’s talk about making one for you.

Comments

They need to know that you’ll be articulate and interesting, rather than tongue-tied, umming and ahhing, overly self-promotional or, worse yet, boring. Short video interviews can quickly demonstrate that you’re a good subject.